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How do I set and release retention on a subcontractor payment application in Procore?

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 For Procore Customers in the United States

flag-us.png  When your company applies the 'Owners English' or 'Speciality Contractors English' point-of-view dictionary, you'll see different tool names and term changes in the user interface. Learn how to apply the dictionary options. 

  • To learn the differences: Show/Hide      

    • This table shows the differences in tool names (bold) and terms across the point-of-view dictionaries for Project Financials. These dictionaries are available in US English only. The default dictionary is designed for main contractors, which means that you will need to work with your Procore Administrator at your company and your Procore point of contact to access the other dictionary options. 

      Main Contractors

      English (United States) - Default

      Owners

      English (Owner Terminology V2)

      Speciality Contractors

      English (Speciality Contractor Terminology)
      Payment Applications Payment Applications Progress Billings
      Owner Funding Owner
      Owner/Client Owner/Client MC/Client
      Main Contract Variation Funding Variation Client Contract Variation
      Main Contracts Funding Client Contracts
      Revenue Funding Revenue
      Subcontract Contract Subcontract
      Subcontractor Contractor Subcontractor
      Subcontractor Bill of Quantities (SBOQ) Contractor Bill of Quantities (CBOQ) Subcontractor Bill of Quantities (SBOQ)

Background

In Procore, the term Retention refers to the practice of withholding of a portion of a contract amount until the work is deemed satisfactorily complete. The withheld amount is specified in an agreement between the contracting party (the party paying for the work) and a contracted party (the person or company performing the work).  A common practice is to withhold 5-10% of a contract's total value until a milestone is reached. Then, the withheld amount can be released as a progress payment. When work is substantially complete, the withheld amount can be released as a final payment. 

Answer

The practice of setting and releasing retention on payment applications protects contractors from potential losses and helps to ensure quality work by subcontractors. To set or release retention on a subcontractor payment application, you must be an payment application administrator.

Set Retention

To set retention on one (1) or more line items in a subcontractor payment application's bill of quantities:

  1. Navigate to the Payment applications tool. 
  2. Click the Subcontractor tab.
  3. Find the subcontractor payment application to edit. 
  4. Click the Payment application # link to open it. 
     Tip
    Alternatively, you can navigate to the Commitments tool, open the desired commitment and then click the Payment applications tab. Then, click the Payment application # link to open it.
  5. Scroll to the payment application's Bill of Quantities.
  6. Click Edit.
  7. Mark one (1) or more line item tickboxes and click the Edit Values button.
    This opens the Edit Values panel. 
  8. Enter a value in the Work Retention this Period (%) box to set the amount to withhold on the selected line items.
  9. Click Apply.
Example

For example, to withhold 10% retention on the first payment application's selected line items, type 10 in the Work Retention This Period (%) box in the Edit Values panel. After clicking Apply:

  • The first line item has a Total Completed & Stored to Date Value (£) of £500.00 USD. Procore calculates the amount to withhold to update the Work Retention this Period (£) value to £50.00 USD. 
  • The second line item has a Total Completed & Stored to Date Value (£) of £2,096.25 USD. Procore calculates the amount to withhold to update the Work Retention this Period (£) value as £209.63 USD. 

Procore updates the Total Retention column on the far right of each line item to show the total retention amount the line item on this payment application. The system also updates the Total Retention column's subtotal row, as well as the Retention total the bottom of the payment application. In this example, the amounts withheld for each line item are £50.00 USD and £209.63 USD for a Retention total of £259.63 USD on the payment application.

Release Retention

To release retention on one (1) or more line items in a subcontractor payment application's bill of quantities:

  1. Navigate to the Payment applications tool. 
  2. Click the Subcontractor tab.
  3. Find the subcontractor payment application to edit. 
  4. Click the Payment application # link to open it. 
  5. Scroll to the payment application's Bill of Quantities.
  6. Click Edit.
  7. Mark one (1) or more line item tickboxes and click the Edit Values button.
  8. Enter a value in the Retention Released (%) box to set the amount of retention to release for the selected line items.
  9. Click Apply.
Example

When creating a new payment application for the commitment in the next billing period, note that Procore automatically inputs some of the previous payment application's data on the new payment application. 

from-previous-invoice.png

For this example, the subcontractor has completed 100% of their work, so 100% of the retention withheld on the previous payment application will be released. To release 100% of the retention, type 100 in the Total Completed & Stored to Date (%) box in the Edit Values panel. After clicking Apply, Procore updates the highlighted values to release 100% of the retention withheld on the previous payment application or £259.63 USD.

release-retainage-values.png